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The Team

David Phillips is a long-time contributor to print and electronic publications in the U.S. and abroad, including Racer, Autosport, AutoWeek, Motor Sport and SPEEDtv.com, oversees the daily updating of news stories and assigns, edits and contributes feature material for inRacingNews.com.

Wil VincentContributing writer

Wil is a 25 year old student, town planner, and sim racing commentator, most well known for his work as the lead commentator for GlacierTV. Wil got into commentating through his college student radio, where he also worked as a journalist and interviewer, covering gigs and festivals within the UK, and joined GlacierTV in February 2012, becoming lead commentator a month later. His work culminated in him commentating on the 2013 iRacing.com World Championship Grand Prix Series, iRacing Indy 500, and iRacing All Star Race. When he gets in the virtual cockpit, you'll normally see will taking on the thrill of IndyCar Oval racing, or trying his hand in GT action

Outside of iRacing, Wil's an avid IndyCar fan, having watched the sport since the late 1990s, and always looks forward to the Month of May. He also enjoys watching NASCAR, Formula 1, and V8 Supercars.

Brooks WestfallSilver Crown Writer

I've been sim racing since 2011 when I joined iRacing. I've jumped to many different sims, including rFactor, Richard Burns Rally, and the famous NASCAR Racing 2003. I picked up a copy of NR2003 with my birthday money when I was only 9, but was limited to a keyboard and a controller. After reciving a G25 for Christmas in '11, I've loved sim racing and the community iRacing has. I hope to end up writing for a car magazine or website in the near future, and intend on attending university to accomplish that.
Aside from my career in sim racing and the real world, I hope to have my own small, yet functional race team soon with the purchace of a go kart. Since I'm currently residing in Maryland, I don't have a wide range of racing to choose from. My only options on a small budget are drag racing or kart racing. After the completion of my senior year in high school next year, I hope that inRacing News and other affiliates will help my dreams of writing for Road & Track become a reality!

Jeff JacobsContributor

Jeff Jacobs started autocrossing with the SCCA in 1990 while a student at the University of Florida. He has competed in the SCCA's National Tour and ProSolo series since 1995, winning a ProSolo National Championship in H-Stock in 2011 driving a 2010 MINI Cooper. Jeff completed his SCCA Club Racing drivers' school in 2012 at Roebling Road in a Spec Miata. He currently writes a column for the SCCA's Northeast Division in SportsCar Magazine and is the Region Executive of the Philadelphia Region SCCA.

Jeff joined iRacing in October 2012. After starting with the MX-5 and SRF cars, he has been concentrating on the Ford Mustang FR500S, competing in the iRacing.com Mustang Cup series and the Continental Endurance Sports Car Series.

Cam Starkcontributing writer

I began taking sim racing seriously about a year ago, but have loved motorsports from a young age. I began following Formula One first, then realized there are a huge variety of motorsports to watch. iRacing has opened my eyes even more to the diversity and volume of “real world” motorsports, let alone on the sim itself. With the huge varieties of series to choose from, you're spoiled for choice!

Ever since I began iRacing, I wanted to improve on my ability, be it road or oval. Having not really heard about oval racing prior to November last year (blame the UK press), my mentality towards it has totally changed from what it would have initially been - it's awesome! I recently began road racing again - in the Star Mazda - and have been having a blast ever since. On top of racing the series I have the privilege of writing the articles for iRacing News.

In all honesty I have surprised myself on iRacing. From being a fairly casual gamer/racer, it's been a world of difference, but it has far exceeded my expectations. I had a very brief stint driving in rFactor leagues, but I found my place of sim racing on this service, and I can't see myself stopping anytime soon.

Justin Suttonseries contributor

Justin is 29 and lives in Texas with his girlfriend and three dogs. Although always a fan of road racing growing up, Sutton never got the chance to participate in Sim-Racing until 2012 and didn't join iRacing until 2013. The son of a writer, and former resident of Connecticut and Philadelphia, his interests vary. Currently Sutton is a co-owner of YouTube channel focused on racing games and simulators and more specifically Formula One along with his partner Mikko from Finland (BoxBoxBoxGaming). Currently Sutton writes the Skip Barber F2000 and Lotus 49 articles (and the occasional F1 article) for iRacing News, and doesn't get nearly enough time to race the cars he writes about.

Gaming is a big part of Sutton's life as well as he is both viewer and broadcaster on Twitch along with his girlfriend of seven years. In addition to being an aspiring writer he is a skilled speaker with a focus on commentary of races and hopes one day to do commentary for road racing of some kind.

Matt HoldenContributor

Matt Holden began his involvement in motorsports at an early age, moving to Charlotte, NC when he was 6 months old. Growing up next door to a NASCAR TV personality, racing has always been a major part of his life. Currently studying Mechanical Engineering at UNC Charlotte, Matt works for US Legend Cars International as a technical inspector and race official at local tracks such as Charlotte Motor Speedway and Concord Speedway. Within iRacing, Matt is the Crew Chief for Gale Force Racing's #05 car in the NASCAR Peak Antifreeze Series, as well as Chassis Engineer for the team's R&D program.

Paul SlavonikiRacingNews Series Writer

For all intents and purposes, Paul Slavonik was a late-bloomer to racing. Growing up watching NASCAR drivers such as Davey Allison and Earnhardt Sr. was the furthest extent of Paul’s racing aspirations at the time. Fast forwarding 20 years, Paul began watching the UK show Top Gear and thus ensued a fascination with all things fast. Soon after, Paul stumbled upon iRacing.com and has been hooked on racing ever since.
A United States Army Veteran, Certified Audio Engineer and aspiring author, Paul spends his time hanging out with his wife and working on his first book. Currently residing in Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW), TX, his favorite racing series is the Australian V8 Supercars (go FPR!) and he has recently joined a local ChumpCar racing team. Paul began writing news stories for iRacingNews in January of 2014 and currently covers the GT3 Challenge Series and the V8 Supercars Series.

Thiago IzequielContributor

Born in 1985 in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Thiago Izequiel is a graphic and web designer, go kart racer, aiming to get a career in motorsports. He started racing in 2007 and joined iRacing in 2010. Thiago lives in Maricá, a little town located in Rio de Janeiro state, around 60km far away from Rio de Janeiro city. In 2014 he started to write for iRacing News and also started to design layouts for racing cars.

Working as a freelancer today, he started working as a designer in 2006. After a few years working in web design agencies, Thiago decided to follow his dreams and quit his job to work with a racing driver named Suzane Carvalho in 2011, on her driver's school. Things didn't worked out as expected and Thiago, after getting jobs as a front-end developer and social media content developer, went back to the dream path as a freelancer so he could have more time to focus on his driving career.

Tom O'Learyauthor

Tom is an 18-year old student from London, UK. Tom started sim-racing quite recently, although his passion for motorsport started at an early age, watching BTCC since the late 90s. Tom has since then expanded his interests in motorsport, watching Le Mans 24hr (and endurance racing as a whole) as well as the DTM, F1, and since starting to write about the NASCAR iRacing Series - NASCAR!

Tom appeared on the sim-racing scene by trying out rFactor, rFactor 2 and then iRacing - where he spends most of his time racing in the Star Mazda Series where he has claimed third and then second overall in the two full seasons he has competed. On the oval side, Tom has completed a few races in the NASCAR Class C (Fixed) although he most enjoys the road side. Tom is an active member of Friction Racing, a team which focuses on the Star Mazda and the Williams-Toyota FW31, with the aim of reaching the Pro Series - and the iRacing World Championship Grand Prix Series.

In his personal life, Tom spend time with his girlfriend (they have been together for two years) and likes a variety of games and has started to livestream his races/gameplay on Twitch, to give an insight to his approach to racing and gaming.

Jack DavidsonStaff Videographer

Jack is a recent grad from Boston University with a passion for filmmaking as well as racing. He grew up playing games such as the Need For Speed series, Gran Turismo, and more recently, the GRID and DIRT franchises.

Jason LofingiRacing.com Series Writer

Jason is 21 years old and was born and raised in Elk Grove. California. A big time NASCAR fan, he hasn’t missed a race on Sunday in years. Lofing is also a huge San Fransisco Giants fan and tries to take in at least a couple games a year. Other than sim racing, his biggest (and far more expensive!) hobby is photography. Although he is rather new to sim racing, Lofing has already accomplished some pretty impressive results, qualifying for the 2011 iRacing Oval Pro Series in Season 1, 2011, winning the inaugural Landon Cassill Qualifying Challenge and finishing runner-up in the second one.

Katier ScottContributing Writer

I am a veteran sim racer who first started racing way back in 1993 on the SPRTSIMS section of Compuserve with a league who can trace themselves all the way to the present. Within that league I act as Chief Steward and try to bring the unique viewpoint that this experience gives me into my articles. I have a BA (Hons) in Journalism and Editorial design and have been writing for seven years and currently cover the Lotus 79 CTC and Radical series alongside my freelance work. Living in the UK, as well as motorsports I love Photography, Arts and Crafts and reading.

David IfeguniContributing Writer

I was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1988 and moved to Midland, Michigan when I was two years old. I stayed there until third grade when I moved to Farmington Hills, Michigan and now I currently live in Naperville, IL where I'm attending Metea Valley High School as a 9th grader. In the past, I have participated in soccer and this year I plan on joining swimming or water polo. My family includes my 15 year old sister, a 7 year old sister and my mom and dad. I have been writing since 6th grade and have participated in many writing contests in my school and have received several awards for writing.My fascination for motorsports began when I was nine. The first NASCAR race I watched on TV was the 2009 Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway, won by Kasey Kahne. My favorite NASCAR drivers are Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr, and Jimmie Johnson. I have watched all the races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series since 2010. I currently have three wins on iRacing, two of them in the Nationwide car at Daytona and one in the Street stocks at Charlotte. My favorite car and type of track on iRacing is the Nationwide Series (B Class) car and superspeedways.

Archive

by Justin Sutton on July 8th, 2014

98

The last time Blake Townend had won a race in the UK&I Skip Barber League was the penultimate race of last season, at Sonoma. Is it a coincidence that this would be the site of his triumphant return for Season 2 of 2014? Possibly, but his dominant victory saw him take the checkered flag by more than nine seconds, one of the season’s biggest margins of victory. Marc Mercer was once again absent from Sonoma and, with only three races remaining in the season, had already been mathematical elimintaed from the championship. Heading into the race Wojciech Rabsztyn maintained his lead with 174 points, only 13 points ahead of rival Marcus Hamilton, with Wojciech Swirydowicz their biggest threat sitting on 136 points. Tom Ward is in a close fourth with [...]

by Jeff Jacobs on June 25th, 2013

139

While not approaching the massive turnout at The Glen in Week 7, the iRacing.com Mustang Cup’s Week 8 provided intense racing through 17 laps on the tricky Infineon Raceway “Cup” configuration. Tire management became an issue, with many sim-racers reporting swiftly deteriorating handling in the closing laps of each race. While the track invited lots of drifting through corners, those who indulged paid for it in slower lap times and lost positions by the end of the race. Points leader Todd Honczarenko secured a win during the largest race of the week, a 17-car field that included a hard-charging John M Sullivan. Having not qualified before the race, Sullivan charged from the seventh starting position to second, unable to make-up time on the leader who posted the fastest lap of [...]

by Katier Scott on April 8th, 2013

84

Lingqvist’s Lead Nearly Unassailable; Lotus Likely Champions Sonoma Raceway and Mosport Park represent two completely different tracks with the former being an undulating track with wide range of corners through dusty hills, while the latter is a classic ex-Formula 1 venue steeped in history and full of flowing corners. Together, they posed quite a back-to-back challenge in Weeks Eight and Nine of the 2013 Season One Classic Teams Championship. At Infineon, Lindqvist continued on his way with another excellent result but in second place was erstwhile multiple champion, Gernot Fritsche. After several poor scores, Fritsche showed a major sign of improvement to take second place in the week ahead of Brabham’s Luca Zanetti. As the field moved to Mosport the championship leader was conspicuous by his absence and Fristche took [...]

by Dylan Sharman on October 25th, 2012

197

Round 12 of the iRacing.com Cadillac Cup and the final stop for the season would see the drivers tackle the challenging Infineon Raceway. It was crunch time for a lot of the regular drivers, as titles where on the line, including the chase for the Division 2 title with Fabian Ventura and James A Cullen battling it out for victory. A total of 78 sim-racers took to the grid for the final round of Season 3 with 62 of them taking part in qualifying and 47 participating in the Time Trials finale. Qualifying Top 10 For the 12th time this season Dylan Sharman topped the time sheets in qualifying with a new lap record of a 1:29.770, while Carlos Reyes Aiguadé posted the second fastest time at 1:30.150. Jean Pierre [...]

by Dylan Sharman on September 27th, 2012

224

Round Eight of the iRacing.com Cadillac Cup went to Infineon Raceway (now-known as Sonoma Raceway), Sonoma has a few different layouts but the Cadillac sin racers would tackle the full 2.53 miles course (4km) featuring 12 turns, including two hairpins. This week the drivers didn’t show up in their normal numbers but still a good turnout of 164 and 71 turning a lap in qualifying. This being the eighth week for the series, it marks the final week before the run home as next week the drivers start dropping their lowest weekly points totals. Qualifying Top 10 Qualifying saw Aus/NZ driver Dylan Sharman post the fastest time of the week with a 1:29.860, while Jean Pierre was two tenths back on a 1:30.054. Nathan Moore managed to scrap past Jan-Paul [...]

by Dylan Sharman on September 20th, 2012

187

Round Seven of the iRacing.com Cadillac Cup went to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, which is a track located just outside the village of Lexington. This difficult track is 2.25 mile (3.6km) long and features a lot of slow corners and some longs straights which lead into heavy braking areas and make for good passing opportunities. 392 drivers entered at least one online race this week while 132 drivers turned a lap in qualifying with 88 drivers also competing in the Time Trial competition. Qualifying Top 10 This week’s qualifying saw Dylan Sharman take the top spot with a new world record of a 1:20.852 while Brazil’s Pierre Rodriguez was the second fastest driver recording a lap time of a 1:21.234 just ahead of Chaz Mostert from Australian/NZ with a 1:21.269 [...]

by David Phillips on July 31st, 2012

More than 3800 iRacers from all over the world took part in the inaugural Cadillac Cup in 2012 Season 2. Featuring a meticulously rendered digital version of the Cadillac CTS-V as raced in the SCCA’s Pirelli World Challenge Series, the Cadillac Cup attracted iRacers, Rookies through Pros, from North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. The 12 race series featured three stops apiece at Infineon Raceway, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Mosport International Raceway and, when all the virtual dust had settled, Dylan Sharman (Nuriootpa, SA, Australia) emerged as the series champion from Ricardo Machuca (Montreal, Quebec) and Brandon Davis (Henderson, NV) – who just happens to be the 2009 Speed World Champion. Sharman will receive an authentic Cadillac Racing helmet autographed by [...]

by Chris Hall on May 30th, 2012

Continuing his renaissance and his bid to reclaim his iRacing.com World Championship Grand Prix Series title, Greger Huttu claimed the spoils of victory in Round Seven of the 2012 series, to strengthen his position atop the leader board. Dominating proceedings on iRacing’s digital rendition of the Infineon Raceway, Huttu piloted his Williams-Toyota to the finish line 11.4s ahead of defending iWCGPS champion and chief protagonist in 2012, Hugo Luis. Starting alongside Luis, who set a pole winning time of 1:06.884, Team Redline’s Huttu made a perfect get-away from the line, to slide past the Brazilian at the first corner. Within three-laps, the pair had broken free of the pack, with Huttu holding a 1.5 second advantage over Luis by their tenth trip around the Infineon “long” configuration. Lap after lap, [...]

by Chris Cunningham on April 6th, 2012

The iRacing.com Skip Barber Racing School Premier Series invaded Sonoma, California for the third week of the season at Infineon Raceway. Christian Aranha and David Williams were the center(s) of attention as they went into the week’s online racing action tied for first place on the leader board. Aranha continued his undefeated sweep this week, winning the two races he elected to start and led every lap en route to his twin triumphs. Unfortunately for Williams, a racing incident cost him a huge points payout during his sole race of the week, enabling Aranha to take complete control in the overall points. However, Infineon saw some new contenders prove they too are willing and (potentially) able to chase down the flawless Floridian. Five races went official this week, starting with [...]

by Chris Cunningham on March 23rd, 2012

603

After a brief spring break, the iRacing.com Skip Barber Racing School Premier Series headed over to the west coast for Week 2 action at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Laguna Seca, known famously for its Corkscrew turn, provided excitement for drivers on the virtual circuit. Some new faces made their presence known during Week 2, as well as the contenders who elected not to drop Week 1 of the series championship. Last week, for Christian Aranha went undefeated in his two starts. His good fortune allowed him to have a repeat performance at Laguna Seca, but a high strength of field race win enabled iRacing.com Grand Prix World Championship Series regular David Williams to join Aranha atop the overall standings. The first race of week two (2:00 GMT) saw three splits [...]

by David Phillips on November 30th, 2011

Elliott Skeer’s idea of a comfort zone is traveling at 100+ mph, no matter whether the speed is real or virtual. Either way, he’s at the wheel of a race car, be it the real Mazda MX5 in which he clinched the 2011 Teen Mazda Championship (West) at Infineon Raceway or iRacing’s virtual MX5 he used to prepare for that event. The 17 year old’s uncomfortable zone? Presenting a sponsorship proposal to a panel of judges at the Mazda Shoot-Out with a prize valued at $75,000 — including the budget to race in the SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX5 Cup — on the line. There was more to the Mazda Shoot-Out than sponsorship proposals, of course; like wheeling a Mazda MX5 Cup car around Buttonwillow Raceway. But Skeer says [...]

by David Phillips on October 8th, 2011

Christian Aranha is not letting any grass grow beneath his feet when it comes to one of the newest cars on the iRacing service, the HPD ARX01. The Floridian jumped into the sensational new LMP2 sports prototype, grabbed the lead in the iRacing.com Prototype and GT Challenge and hasn’t looked back. With 15 wins in 28 online races (and 19 poles as well), Aranha has staked himself to a useful if not insurmountable lead in the points over rivals Klaus Ellenbrand and Ryan Murray, and it will take some doing to unseat him in the final weeks of 2011 Season 3. He’s also currently P2 in the series Time Trial competition, as well. Not that Aranha is completely focused on the Prototype and GT Challenge. He took time to compete [...]

September 6th, 2011

126

Yang Ou (Scandinavia) secured the iRacing.com IZOD IndyCar Series Premier road racing title like a true champion, leading from lights to flag in Sunday’s top Strength of Field race at Infineon Raceway. Taking his ninth win of the season, Ou crossed the line 18.7s ahead of Andre Boettcher (DE-AT-CH) with Aleksi Elomaa (Finland) a further 23 seconds back just ahead of PJ Stergios (New England). Ou’s domination of the online race came as no surprise, given than fact that he claimed his 11th pole position in a dozen outings with a sizzling lap of 1:15.593, more than .3s quicker than Boettcher’s best. In fact, only Ou and Boettcher broke into the 1:15s as Elomaa gridded third with a best lap of 1:16.715. The start saw Ou take full advantage of [...]

by David Phillips on August 8th, 2011

101

Yang Ou consolidated his lead in the 2011 iRacing.com IZOD IndyCar Premier Series -Road with a convincing victory at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Sunday’s top strength of field (3064) race. The Club Scandinavia member grabbed his tenth pole position of the campaign with a lap of 1:08.382 ahead of championship rival Aleksi Elomaa (Club Finland) and Andre Boettcher (Club DE-AT-CH). Despite a less than perfect getaway, Ou grabbed the lead at the start and was never headed throughout the 52 lap race. Boettcher got the jump on Elomaa to grab second place on the opening lap, and kept Ou in sight in the early going despite a minor “off” on Lap Eight. In fact, when Ou suffered a temporary issue with his Dallara’s brakes, Boettcher closed to within [...]

by Jameson Spies on June 30th, 2011

122

For the second season in a row, the NASCAR iRacing Class A Series made a trip to “Wine Country” for a visit to the tricky Infineon Raceway. This ten turn, two mile raceway in Sonoma, California presents many challenges for its competitors. A technical uphill section combined with a blistering fast downhill section never allows drivers to let their guard down. While most sim racers were not up to the challenge, fifty-seven competed in races throughout the week, which is about the same amount that took to the track here last season. Roland Ehnström, the Scandinavian who has been impressive on ovals, showed he also had what it takes to conquer the tricky road out west. Ehnström grabbed top honors for his 224 point win over Scott Heckert, leading 53 [...]

by Jameson Spies on June 23rd, 2011

80

Hot and slick Michigan International Speedway hosted Week Seven of the NASCAR iRacing.com Class A series, and for some sim racers it was a week to remember while, for others, it was something they want to forget. Grip was not easily found at the aging track, as most drivers fought very loose cars on the exit of the corners. However, this made the lives of people who found traction, that much more enjoyable. Eddie A. Smith turned a lot of heads this week, as he not only won every race he started, but led the way in points as well. 329 big ones for Smith gave him the top honors for the week, beating out NASCAR iRacing.com Series World Championship driver Brad Davies. Michael Conti was third overall, while Roland [...]

by David Phillips on June 18th, 2011

627

OK, OK. If you’re a regular (or even irregular) reader of inRacingNews, you’re already familiar with Nick Ottinger’s name. After all, as a serial winner in the NASCAR iRacing.com Street Stock Series, he’s a staple of Jordan Hightower’s weekly reports. The Carolina Club sim racer is also very active — and competitive — in Legends Cup and NASCAR Class A and B, where he got out of the gate fast with four top fives and a couple of wins in the early weeks of the season. But would you have guessed that Ottinger’s most recently read book was Of Mice & Men? Or that one of this confessed oval junkie’s favorite tracks on iRacing is Infineon Raceway? Read on . . . Q: How long have you been sim racing [...]

by Patrick Atherton on May 23rd, 2011

The iRacing V8 Supercar Series moved to Sonoma for Week Three of Season Two, at Infineon Raceway Cup. Week One sensation Peter Read made a welcome return by joining polesitter Madison Down on the front row, less than one-tenth behind the Trans Tasman racer. Behind them was Mitchell McLeod, then Shane Van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin making the field top heavy with real-world racers. Next came Vail Riches, impressing in qualifying for the third week running. The ever-improving Simon Madden was seventh, with a time which “would have put me on pole last season!” Then came Cal Whatmore, another highly impressive newcomer from previous weeks. Cracking the top ten in this field with any level of experience is a big deal. Corey Slade made a welcome return to the high [...]

by Christopher Leone on April 29th, 2011

29

Nico Brandt may have won the battle at Infineon Raceway, but Ryan Field won the war. Field took the overall IZOD IndyCar Series – Road title with 651 points, on the strength of six wins and seven poles in seven starts. So strong were his performances in the first four weeks of the season, that he needn’t have bothered to participate in the final two online races of the season at Watkins Glen and Infineon. Field’s decision not to participate opened up the winner’s circle for some other sim racers to take victories, as nine drivers took the 10 official races held. Ken Leach was the only multiple winner on the week, tying for fourth in points for the week with 126. Brandt was the big winner on the week, [...]